Grand Prix Drivers' Association chairman Alexander Wurz says overtaking in Formula One is now "a matter of size of balls" thanks to 2017's wider and faster cars.
Formula One's new generation of cars have already achieved the goal of dramatically reducing lap times, but appear to have done so at the expense of making overtaking more difficult as the increased levels of downforce make cars harder to follow. Australia's processional race raised concerns of a dull season but the Chinese Grand Prix was seen as a better test for the new cars due to the layout of the circuit, which featured a record 128 overtakes in 2016.
Despite starting on a drying track there were considerably less at this year's event, though the race featured several thrilling passes -- notably Max Verstappen around the outside of Kimi Raikkonen or Sebastian Vettel's thrilling, wheel-banging pass on Daniel Ricciardo at Turn 6. That corner featured several other moves despite not being in a Drag Reduction System (DRS) zone.
Wurz believes overtaking is now a reward for the bravest drivers.
Overtaking this year is a matter of size of balls ! Mega! I dont need 135 easy overtakes, i love the real mega moves like Max and Seb showed
— alex wurz (@alex_wurz) April 9, 2017
Red Bull boss Christian Horner likes the fact that DRS now helps a driver set up a move later in the lap rather than simply allow one car to fly past another when close enough.
"I think it is as it should be. It looks like it has nullified an element of the DRS and the DRS is doing the job that it was initially intended, to give you that run. But a driver has still got to get a job done. I think all the overtakes that we saw today, maybe there was less of them but they were all earned.
"So Vettel on Ricciardo, Verstappen on Ricciardo, Verstappen on Bottas, they were all aggressive, take-your-opportunity overtakes. That's the way it should be and I thought hopefully for the fans today it was a good race."
Another driver to utilise Turn 6 was Haas driver Romain Grosjean with a deft move on the inside of Jolyon Palmer late on. Grosjean's boss Guenther Steiner thinks overtaking will be fine as long as there are a mix of strategies in play during a race.
"I think it was a little bit special because people were on different tyres, that made it possible," Steiner said. "It was pretty cool the overtaking. They were nice manoeuvres, they were not just blasting by. I think if people use different strategies it is possible.
"On the same tyre I think because Romain struggled a bit behind Palmer... But then again with a different tyre you can take a different line and you can do it. The thing is we lost a lot of time behind them. It is possible. Today it was quite interesting what happened out there. I think all over the place, so after Australia, Formula One gets interesting again."